Indian chemical manufacturer Epsilon Advanced Materials (EAM) has signed a supply agreement with US refiner Phillips 66 to purchase anode-grade green petroleum coke and calcined needle coke for its planned graphite anode facility in the US.
The deal will supply coke — a key feedstock for producing synthetic graphite anodes for lithium-ion batteries — from Phillips 66's 264,000 b/d Lake Charles refinery in Louisiana to EAM's planned 30,000 t/yr large-scale graphite anode plant in North Carolina.
"This collaboration is a major step in building a secure and sustainable battery materials supply chain for the US," EAM's managing director Vikram Handa said last week.
EAM's plant, which will cost around $650mn, is expected to start production in 2027, the company said, marking a delay from its previous plans to begin in 2026. EAM plans to expand output at the plant to 60,000t/yr by 2030 in order to supply US battery manufacturers and automotive original equipment manufacturers with enough graphite anode material for about 1mn electric vehicles annually.
EAM also received a non-binding $420mn letter of interest (LOI) from the US Export-Import Bank (EXIM) in July, which could help to advance its plans to establish a domestic battery materials supply chain. The LOI is under EXIM's Make More in America initiative, which focuses on diversifying battery-grade graphite supplies. EAM was among the US' active anode material producers pushing for a 93.5pc anti-dumping duty on all anode-grade graphite products imported from China that was announced on 17 July.
EAM is also expanding internationally by developing a 50,000 t/yr graphite anode plant in Vaasa, Finland, in partnership with Finnish Minerals Group, and a 100,000 t/yr anode battery materials manufacturing plant in Karnataka, India.
